$100 Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Card Starter Kit – One-Sheet Collections
For many, nostalgia remains the driving force behind baseball card collecting, and that’s how I arrived at the idea of One-Sheet Collections.
It’s a simple concept with infinite possibilities.
Take a single nine-pocket sheet and a reasonable $100 budget, and build a nine-card collection with a unifying theme.
We’re just kicking off a new team-specific theme to the One-Sheet Collections series. We’ve already covered the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins, and now it’s on to the Toronto Blue Jays as we work our way chronologically through MLB franchise history.
The Blue Jays inaugural season came in 1977 when they were one of two new teams added to the league along with the Seattle Mariners. They reached the postseason for the first time in 1985 and won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993, but they have made the playoffs just three times in the 28 years since and have not returned to the Fall Classic.
1980 Topps #77 Dave Stieb RC ($1.50)
A fifth-round pick in the 1978 draft, Dave Stieb is the Blue Jays all-time leader in WAR (56.8), wins (175), strikeouts (1,658) and innings pitched (2,873). He also ranked second among all pitchers during the 1980s with 140 wins, trailing only Jack Morris (162).
He made his MLB debut on June 29, 1979, roughly one year after he was drafted out of Southern Illinois University. He started 18 games as a rookie and his Rookie Card was featured the following year in the 1980 Topps set.
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1982 Topps #254 George Bell RC ($1.50)
Plucked from the Phillies organization in the 1980 Rule 5 draft, slugger George Bell was one of the most feared sluggers in baseball in the late-80s. He won AL MVP honors in 1987 when he hit .308/.352/.604 with 47 home runs and 134 RBI for a Blue Jays team that won 96 games but failed to reach the postseason. He is one of just six players with 200 home runs in a Blue Jays uniform.
He has Rookie Cards in the 1982 Donruss, 1982 Fleer and 1982 Topps sets, and all three can be scooped up for less than $5 combined.
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1984 Donruss #32 Tony Fernandez RC ($2)
The Blue Jays all-time leader in games played (1,450) and hits (1,583), Tony Fernandez spent four different stints in Toronto, including as a trade pickup in 1993 when he hit .306/.361/.442 in 94 games and helped win a World Series title.
While Topps missed on including him in their 1984 set following his 15-game cup of coffee in 1983, he does have Rookie Cards in the 1984 Donruss and 1984 Fleer sets. His Donruss rookie is part of the first “Rated Rookie” class.
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1990 Leaf #237 John Olerud RC ($3)
One of the greatest two-way players in college baseball history, John Olerud hit .460 with 23 home runs and went 15-0 with a 2.49 ERA during the 1988 season at Washington State. He was selected in the third round of the 1989 draft and went straight to the majors without spending a single day in the minors. He had a 7.8-WAR season in 1993 and racked up 22.6 WAR in eight seasons in Toronto.
He has seven different Rookie Cards scattered across all the major 1990 products, with his inclusion in the iconic 1990 Leaf Baseball being the most valuable of the bunch.
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1992 Bowman #127 Carlos Delgado RC ($8)
During the nine-year stretch from 1996 through the 2004 season, Carlos Delgado hit .286/.397/.565 and averaged 36 home runs and 114 RBI per season. He had one of the best seasons in Blue Jays history in 2000 when he batted .344/.470/.664 with 57 doubles, 41 home runs and 137 RBI, and he is the club’s all-time leader in home runs (336) and RBI (1,058).
A top prospect for multiple seasons in the minors, Delgado is featured on plenty of “rookie” and “prospect” cards, but his only true Rookie Card is in 1992 Bowman Baseball where he is joined by Mariano Rivera, Mike Piazza, Manny Ramirez, Trevor Hoffman at the top rookies in the set.
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1995 Upper Deck Steal of a Deal #SD6 Roberto Alomar/Joe Carter ($5)
The Blue Jays acquired Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar from the San Diego Padres prior to the 1991 season in exchange for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez in a move that helped pave the way for the club’s back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
That monumental move was included in the 1995 Upper Deck Steal of a Deal insert set that highlighted some notable trades and draft picks that could be considered steals. They were found exclusively in Series 1 and were a tough pull at 1:34 packs.
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1997 Bowman Chrome #212 Roy Halladay RC ($30)
Roy Halladay went 19-7 with a 2.93 ERA in 239.1 innings during a breakout 2002 season, and the following year he took home AL Cy Young honors. The Hall of Famer was a six-time All-Star and finished in the top five in Cy Young voting five times during his 12 seasons in Toronto before he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
As is the case with a number of high-profile stars in the late-90s, Bowman cornered the market on his Rookie Cards. He has rookies in the 1997 Bowman, 1997 Bowman Chrome and 1997 Bowman’s Best sets, while his first Topps card did not come until the following year.
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2016 Donruss Optic Autographs #OAJB Jose Bautista ($25)
The middle-of-the-order trio of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson helped the Blue Jays return to the playoffs for the first time in 22 years in 2015, and it’s Bautista who was the face of the franchise during that span. He led the AL in home runs in 2010 (54) and 2011 (43) and slugged 227 long balls total during the six-year span from 2010 through 2015.
He has a number of affordable autographs from his time with the Blue Jays, and one of the best looking of the bunch is part of the 2016 Donruss Optic Baseball set.
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2020 Finest Duals #FD18 Vladimir Guerrero Jr./Bo Bichette ($10)
It’s only fair to carve out a spot for the current young stars in Toronto in this collection, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette have appeared on a handful of cards together since first breaking into the league.
Their 2020 Finest Duals insert is a great, affordable option to round out our Toronto Blue Jays collection.
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Total: $86
If you are going to put a Jose Bautista card in there, it absolutely would have to be the 2016 Topps “bat flip” card.
I would also probably put a Vernon Wells card in there ahead of the Vlad/Bichette card. You basically skipped about 20 years worth of Jays history by skipping him.